Hare Today, Bear Tomorrow (Mating Call Dating Agency #1)(20)

“This is pretty serious,” he said. “You’re really willing to take a chance on me, on a guy you hardly know, based on two dates and the fact that I took my first day off in sixteen years to come and see you?”

“I might not be good at trust, but I can read people,” Garnet said. She was serious too, from the tone in her voice. “I spend every second I’m awake analyzing, questioning and thinking and never letting my guard down. I’ve been on plenty of dates, although admittedly not in the past few years. If I couldn’t figure someone out in the first ten seconds of meeting them I’d probably be dead by now.”

“I don’t pick my clothes up when I take them off. I just throw them on the floor,” Stacy said.

“Sometimes I forget to brush my teeth until I eat a banana and it tastes awful,” Garnet countered.

“Once, I let my trash stack up so much that the maid I hired refused to clean unless I hired someone else to help her,” Stacy upped the poor lifestyle decision ante.

“For two weeks last year I forgot to wash my hair. It was like a bunch of candles hanging off my head. In fairness, I was also in rural Tennessee, but still.”

“I went a month without washing my gym gear.”

“I’d rather do pretty much anything but cook. Even if ‘anything’ means ‘eating Taco Bell for a week.’”

“That’s gross,” Stacy said flatly, completely unable to hide his huge grin. “But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been there. I can’t believe I’m about to say this. Hell, I can’t believe I feel like this. Part of my mind thinks I’m completely insane and going against everything reasonable.”

“Ancient Egyptians thought that the stomach and the heart controlled the body. You know, you get butterflies when you fall in love, and when you think you’re about to get pulled over and get a ticket, your heart races?” Her hands seemed to find his without her even thinking about it. “That’s my long-winded way of saying you’re not the only crazy person here.”

“I really hate to waste this stew. I feel sorta guilty about Eve paying for it and us not eating it,” Stacy said, glancing down at the still-steaming bowl for only a second before he went right back to staring straight into Garnet’s soul. “But at the same time, I just can’t make myself care.”

“Say whatever you want to say,” Garnet said. “Right now you could tell me I had spinach in my teeth and it wouldn’t change the way I feel.”

“Even if I think I’m nuts?” he asked.

“Especially if you think you’re nuts. I have this theory that when we think we’re craziest is when we’re the most honest. And besides, the hair on your arms is growing thicker. If I know anything about bears, that means you’re about to say something you know you can’t take back.”

“Either that, or we’re about to get in a fight, or someone’s playing a fiddle with our heart. Although bears don’t usually admit that sort of thing,” he smiled. “Your nose is twitching. I’m guessing that’s the same tell for rabbits?”

“Exactly the same one, but I’m not going to tell you why my nose is twitching until you tell me why your arms are getting hairier. I’m hoping it’s not because you’re actually a New Jersey Mafia boss. I don’t see a big gold chain on your wrist, so...”

He laughed loud and hard and heavy. “I’ve never felt like this, not once in my life,” he said.

“You’re deflecting. If you don’t say what you want to say, I’m gonna order dessert.”

“That’s moxie,” he said with a smile. “But... I think I’m falling in love with you and I don’t want to miss this chance to be happy in the way that I’ve always wanted but never thought I ever would.”

The air left Garnet’s lungs in a hiss between her clenched teeth. Her mouth fell open involuntarily, and she couldn’t help but grin when she was finished exhaling. “I,” she started and then shook her head. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, but I think the same thing.”

“Are we stupid?” she asked a moment later. “Are we just two lonely shifters who found the first thing that came along and jumped at it?”

Stacy was shaking his head. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that I don’t jump unless I see something special. And you? You make me laugh. I could look at your eyes forever and never be bored. I’ve never, not once in my life, known anyone who made me relax and made me realize that no matter what, I was okay. You make my heart calm down, Garnet, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this go without a fight.”

He was standing up and holding Garnet’s hand. “What are you doing?” she asked. “What’s going on?”

“We’re leaving,” he said. “I have a feeling that this isn’t going to be the first time they put people on this balcony and they ended up taking off before the meal was over.”

“Aren’t you hungry?” Garnet asked, “you’re a bear after all.”

“I’m starving half to death, but it isn’t for food,” he said as he clutched Garnet against him and pushed through the door. “I’m starving for you. And I’m not missing this chance, not for anything in the world.”